Page 172 of The Broken Note

But I have more important things to do.

Like find Cadence.

I haven’t seen her in seventy-two hours.

Three days. Twenty-five minutes. Seven seconds.

An eternity.

The longer I’ve been held up in jail, the more urgent I feel. It’s like there’s something inside me, prodding me forward, telling me to hurry or I’ll be too late. Too late for what? Hell if I know.

I step out of prison and I’m stunned to see my brothers waiting outside.

Zane’s face twists with relief and he rushes toward me. Even Finn looks unusually nervous.

“Dutch.” Zane grabs my shoulder and looks me over. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Did they hurt you or… did anyone…”

“No, I was in a holding cell. Alone.” I drill a hard stare into Finn’s face. “What took you so long?”

“We had no idea you were in jail.”

I grunt and tap on my blank phone screen. The cops gave me my phone back and the device is taking forever to turn on.

“Where the hell did you think I was for the past three days?”

“With Cadence,” Finn says.

A ripple of anxiety washes over me.

“After you went to see dad, we got a text from your phone saying you’d found Cadence’s location and you’d gone after her.” Finn scrolls to show me the text in question.

It’s my number.

Written exactly how I would have spoken to them.

“We thought you’d come back to Redwood with her. We didn’t ask questions.” Zane glares into the back of a tree. He looks ready to pummel something, anything. “We should have freaking asked questions.”

“When did you figure it out?”

“When Jinx wrote a post about you being with a blonde.” Finn’s voice is dry. Matter-of-fact.

“A blonde?” I grind out. For the past three days, I’ve been in jail. When would I have time to meet…

Breeze.

Dammit.

Jinx must have gotten pictures of me talking to Cadence’s best friend.

“Neither of us believed it.”

My eyes widen slightly.

“I’ve seen you with other girls,” Zane fills in. “The way you are with Brahms is different. You were—are—serious about her. After everything you’ve done for that chick, you wouldn’t jump ship. I had to hear you confirm it with your own mouth.”

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